


Home is Where?

by Lyl



Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Community: lonelytartsclub, F/M, Missing Scene, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-19
Updated: 2010-07-19
Packaged: 2017-10-10 16:31:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/101807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyl/pseuds/Lyl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The day he was finally assigned his own team, John read their service records and promptly decided to find the nearest bar and get drunk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home is Where?

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt I: Earthside (6 weeks between Return 1 and Return 2)

It started with lunch.

Actually, it was technically breakfast, but John Sheppard was still on Atlantis time so had to settle for runny eggs and undercooked hash browns for his mid-day meal. Not that he minded too much, because after three years in Atlantis where eggs from chickens were few and far between, they were still a novelty – no matter how badly they were made. He just didn't like what they represented.

They represented Earth. They represented the SGC. They represented the 'normal' life he was now expected to lead.

For the past three years, normal had been a planet in another galaxy. It had been an ancient city in the middle of an ocean. It had been purple eggs that tasted like cinnamon and bananas, and only ever cooked well as scrambled, no matter what the cooks tried.

He'd been contemplating the lack of orange potato-things on his plate when a tray had been set down on the other side of the table. He'd looked up to see Vala Mal Doran arranging herself in a chair opposite him, a big smile on her face.

John remembered just looking at her and his mind blanked. He'd felt that panicky knot forming in his chest, that hadn't been around since his last 'first day' in a new school. She was part of SG-1, and he couldn't figure out why she was slumming with the former commander of an Ancient city, who nobody wanted around but couldn't get rid of.

She'd said something about the mess being too crowded, and by the time he'd turned his attention back to her, she was already going off on some topic or other. John had wondered if he should have said anything, but her constant dialogue reminded him how much he'd missed Rodney's scathing commentaries at meal time, and how alone he'd felt whenever he ate in the mess, as the SGC personnel always left a wide ring of empty seats circling him.

John watched her talk and eat in that single minded way he'd only ever seen in Rodney – and possibly Ronon. He felt his lips quirk a bit before turning his attention back to his own meal, but he didn't miss the pleased smile that curved her lips.

~!~

Meals together soon became the norm for them, his reputation gaining them a table to themselves, even in the overcrowded mess. He was getting strange looks as he walked around the SGC, but they were more and more the amused/confused looks everyone seem to have adopted from SG-1, rather than the overtly hostile 'you didn't tow the line' looks he'd been getting since his eviction from Atlantis.

He'd known the brass had never liked him, but he hadn't realized that attitude had somehow spread down through the ranks. He had been the Commanding Officer of the military in Atlantis for three years, yet that apparently meant nothing in comparison to his black mark from before Antarctica. He'd never felt like an outcast in any military installation he'd been stationed at – even after being exiled to McMurdo as a glorified taxi driver – until now.

The day he was finally assigned his own team, John read their service records and promptly decided to find the nearest bar and get drunk. After all he'd done and seen, it was a slap in the face to be saddled with newbies for low priority missions.

After the team he'd had, it wasn't even a consolation prize.

He'd met Vala on the way out, and had spontaneously invited her along.

They'd gone to several different bars, each one filled with alcohol, loud music and anonymity. John had watched as Vala worked the room, gaining the attention of each man there, only to waltz over to him with an extra swing in her hips, a pout on her lips and an arm around his waist. It was a subtle declaration – as far as she was able to make – and made him the envy of every male in the room. And a few females, too.

By the time they'd hit the fifth bar, it was too late – and they were both too drunk – to head back to the mountain, so John gallantly offered the use of his little used apartment. A blurry cab ride there, and they were stumbling into a room he'd only seen once.

He woke up the next morning with a pounding head, a slim body draped over his and a shrill ringing in his ear. A while later he realized the ringing had been his cell phone, and once he was able to move without wishing the universe would implode, he checked the caller ID. McKay.

He needed to feel at least halfway human before he could deal with Rodney this early into a hangover, so tossed the phone back down and headed for the bathroom for a handful of aspirin and a shower. Coming out, he heard her velvety voice talking, and realized she was on his phone.

“...well, I was taken host by a Go'auld and ruled several planets as a goddess, so I think that puts me above any old alien priestess...”

John paused to watch her, sitting cross-legged on his rumpled bed, in one of the Air Force dress shirts he never wore, but somehow populated his closet. She must have changed out of the wrinkled, smoky clothes she'd fallen asleep in last night, but John couldn't really find it in himself to object. She looked too delectable.

“Nope, never ascended. Though I did conceive and give birth to the religious leader of the armies of the Ori.”

John smirked at the loud squawk he could hear from the other side of the room.

“Oh, no. Immaculate conception,” she was saying in an overly serious tone, and John figured enough was enough. Her tongue was poking through her front teeth, her hair was in lopsided pigtails, and the temptation was too much.

Moving to pluck the phone out of her hand, John said a quick, “Bye, Rodney,” before hanging up. Tossing the phone over his shoulder, uncaring of where it landed, he reached out with both hands to tilt her face up.

He lowered his lips to hers, and decided to take the day off.

~!~

His life started to sparkle more after that. He looked forward to going in to work, and even left the mountain most days for his apartment. Vala would accompany him frequently, which felt far more like a relationship than he cared to think about.

She wasn't military, she wasn't on his team and quite frankly, no one could prove anything. And they'd tried. Various SGC people would drop by John's apartment 'spur of the moment' to 'see how he was doing', attempting to catch them in 'inappropriate conduct', but never succeeded.

John rediscovered his love for cooking – and hatred for Chinese – while Vala tried to absorb as much of American culture as she could through TV, movies and the internet. John found he was no help in a lot of modern culture seeing as he'd missed the last few years, but that didn't stop either of them. In fact, learning about the changes in the world through Vala's eyes helped him deal with his unwanted return to Earth.

He was actually doing better than Rodney with the whole 'kicked out of Atlantis' thing, who was still calling him three or four times a week. After several conversations with Vala over John's appropriated cell phone, Rodney had started to call him at the SGC instead, which just amused him.

The SGC as a whole didn't know what to make of them. Vala still flirted with everyone, but added extra innuendo and teasing with him. He gave as good as he got, and tried not to smirk when he got horrified looks from Daniel and Mitchell. Or really anyone else on base. The responses to Vala varied from uncomfortable to scared to all out denial, so seeing someone returning and matching her attention, was new and different.

Rodney still called him Kirk, and General Landry still looked at him with mild disdain, but all in all John was starting to find his feet in this foreign place.

~!~

When the Replicators attacked Atlantis, Vala was off-world with SG-1 on a quest of some sort. John had never really paid much attention to their mission briefings, only to the dates when Vala would be away. And due back.

John hadn't thought he would regret leaving anything behind on Earth if the chance to return to Atlantis ever came up, but waiting at the way-station for McKay to hack his own macro, he realized he did. He would miss Vala and their movie nights. He would miss having another person to explore new experiences with. He would miss having a body to turn to when the dreams woke him in the middle of the night.

Mostly, he regretted not saying good-bye.

Then the call came from General Landry and he couldn't dwell on it any more.

~!~

In the first data burst from Earth after returning to Atlantis, John found himself the recipient of a rather large message, containing a short text file and a large video file.

The text file was a message from Vala, telling him about her latest adventure and what new Earth-things she'd learned that day.

The video file was actually the next movie they had planned to watch, but with an added voice over commentary from Vala on her thoughts as she watched the movie. As John sat down to watch it, he was transported back to the many nights they'd spent curled up on his couch, watching some film while she asked questions or commented on the action.

John resolved to send her back an equally long letter, with his own commentary added to whatever movie he could scrounge from among the Atlantis population. He'd even swallow his pride and ask one of the tech guys how to do all that, too.

Because it was Vala, and she was one of a kind.

END


End file.
